


nothing matters, cause we're both in space

by millennium_wagtail



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Band Fic, Everyone Is Alive, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28395777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millennium_wagtail/pseuds/millennium_wagtail
Summary: Bly Minor looks for a replacement after one of the band-mates leaves. Dani Clayton is looking for new friends in an unfamiliar place, and she finds them in this band, but she also finds something more.A band au! Jamie plays guitar and Dani plays bass!
Relationships: Dani Clayton & Jamie, Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	1. this chick who plays bass

Jamie leaned back on the armchair, her left hand grasping the neck of her guitar, and her right idly scrolling down her twitter feed. Her legs were stretched in front of her, resting on Hannah’s glass coffee table.

She sighed, throwing the phone away from her so that it landed on the sofa where Owen and Hannah were lounging.

“I can’t believe Becs is ditching us for some guy”, Jamie grumbled, starting to strum out some jazzy diminished chords.

“She’s not ditching us, she’s taking an extended leave to journey around the globe with her hot new boyfriend”, reasoned Owen. He was munching on the biscuits that he had brought, and whose crumbs were now cascading down his shirt and onto Hannah’s expensive leather sofa.

“Sounds like ditchin’ to me…”, muttered Jamie.

Hannah glanced at her band-mates, she studied the soles of Jamie’s boots leaving small traces of mud on her once-sparkling coffee table, and she noticed as little bourbon biscuit morsels descended through Owen’s beard to land on her previously-immaculate cushions. She loved them, but she wasn’t sure she could handle the both of them on her own.

“We should find someone to replace her, then!”, Hannah blurted. Owen turned to look at her, slightly shocked. Jamie looked up from the chord she was making, and regarded Hannah.

“Huh. Didn’t think of that. How’d you think we’d go about doing that?”, Jamie asked.

“We could just post on our twitter. Ask people to retweet, put on a couple hashtags, we’ll have people messaging us in no time.”, Owen proposed.

Jamie nodded her head, her mouth upturned to make a ‘not bad’ face. He looked to Hannah, seeking her agreement, and when she nodded approvingly, Jamie said, “Ok great. Let’s do it.”

She set her black Gibson aside, reaching for her phone. She set about writing the tweet, adding pictures of the band in action; playing at gigs, the band practicing at Hannah’s place, the band getting drinks after a good show, and one final picture of Owen with his drumsticks up his nose.

In the text section of the profile, Jamie wrote:

We are Bly Minor, a folk-rock band looking for another member! If you can sing or play guitar/bass/some other instrument and are interested in joining the best fucking band this side of the London, send us a dm!

She added some hashtags and when she was satisfied, she closed the app and threw her phone once more.

“You’re gonna break that one day”, sneered Owen.

Jamie grinned, “Shut up, you. Alright, enough dillydallying, let’s start jamming.”

* * *

By the end of their jam session, they had already received several messages.

One man, whose bio said he was 47, admitted that he did not play an instrument, but his niece and nephew were very talented. His nephew, Miles plays the guitar, and his niece, Flora plays the piano. He also stated that they would be valuable additions to the band. When asked how old they were, he begrudgingly admitted that they were 10 and 8 respectively.

Hannah wrote out a polite message declining, as Jamie looked over her shoulder snickering.

They decided to set a date for auditions in two weeks’ time, and Jamie, whose phone they had used, would notify the prospecting members over the next week of the audition date. They said their goodbyes, and Jamie headed across London back to her shitty apartment.

Six days later, Jamie was lounged on her sofa, ignoring the TV, her empty dinner plate on the coffee table in front of her, as she scrolled absentmindedly down her feed.

News article, picture of lunch, picture of dog, news article, meme…a notification caused her phone to buzz. A message from a prospecting member. She clicked on the little picture near the name and… Jamie paused. Looking at her through the screen was the most gorgeous woman she had ever seen. She was sitting by a window in some small café, and she had the the loveliest smile, that left the sides of her mouth adorably crinkled. She had small hoop earrings, and her blonde, voluminous hair framed her face. She was holding a mug up to her face and laughing into it as she looked into the camera.

Jamie stared at this photo for several minutes, processing the fact that she was beginning a new, better chapter in her life where she knew that this woman, Dani, existed.

She read through her few tweets, eager to find out more about her, and found out she is an American that moved to London recently (tweet from 6 months ago complaining about jet lag and nosy neighbours), that she was a teacher (tweet from 3 years earlier, sharing some art work by a student), and that she likes to cuddle (tweet from 5 years earlier, stating that she wish she had someone to cuddle).

The simple thought of cuddling with this stranger, whom she had never even met made butterflies erupt in Jamie’s stomach and made her blush bright red.

The message she sent was pretty short:

‘Hi! My name’s Dani. I just moved to London not long ago, and I really need some friends. I play bass pretty well’

Jamie agonised over what to write back. She practically burned a track into the carpet with the amount of pacing she did. Finally, she wrote back:

‘Great, we are holding some auditions tomorrow-week. Hope you can make it’

‘Hope you can make it’ was probably the understatement of the century. Jamie felt like she would die if she never saw Dani again.

As she lay in bed, her mind kept returning back to that picture. She felt that she knew her somehow, despite never having met her. Even though she knew three very superficial facts about Dani, she felt like she understood her.

God, she hoped Dani would come to the audition. She didn’t even have to join the band, Jamie just wanted to meet her in person.

This couldn’t be the end.

* * *

Audition day finally arrived, and Jamie wasn’t there. She’d gotten held up at work. There had been a sudden infestation of beetles at the garden centre, and she had to deal with it, on top of all her normal responsibilities.

The whole time she was spraying the plants with all sorts of nutrients to help them recover, she was wondering if Dani had shown up, and if she was any good. Hannah and Owen had been keeping her updated, but they hadn’t sent her anything new in over an hour.

As she pulled off her work overalls, her phone dinged. A message from the band groupchat!

Hannah had written: ‘We have a new band-member!’

Jamie’s heart sank. That despair quickly soured into anger. She called Hannah’s phone, pacing restlessly as it rang. As soon as Hannah picked up, Jamie blurted out:

“What d’you mean you’ve decided!? What about democracy!? Don’t I get a say!?”

Hannah calmly waited for her to finish her rant, before saying; “Honestly, she was the only good musician who auditioned, so there really wasn’t any choice. Besides, I’m pretty sure you’ll like her.”

Jamie could hear Hannah’s smug grin through the phone, so she hung up before Hannah could get another condescending comment in.

She pulled off her hair tie, letting her loose curls down, and rubbed her face tiredly. She collected her stuff from the lockers in the back, and headed out to her truck, anxious to find out who the new band member was.

She walked in to an angel sitting politely on Hannah’s leather sofa. Hannah was seated next to her, with her body turned toward her as she explained something, and Owen was perched on the coffee table opposite them, listening intently to Hannah. Jamie stood in the doorway, too distracted by Dani’s presence to take another step or to greet them.

Hannah finally noticed her, and beckoned her in.

“Jamie, this is Dani. She’s American and she plays bass!”, she said, adding “She’s rather good if I may say”, as she smiled at Dani.

Dani looked down shyly at the bass that was lying on her lap. Jamie followed her gaze, finally shifting her focus away from Dani’s face, to see a cream coloured 4-string bass. Jamie caught herself thinking that the pale colour of the instrument looked nice complimented Dani’s hair and skin tone, but before she gave herself a chance to blush at that embarrassing thought, she reached out a hand for Dani to shake.

Dani took it eagerly, smiling up at Jamie in the process. Her eyes were twinkling and a lovely shade of blue, kind of like the colour of a hydrangea, Jamie thought. Dani’s hands were soft, but she could feel the musicians callouses from years of playing her instrument.

“It’s nice to meet you”, Dani said to fill in the awkward silence. Her voice was gentle, with a slight endearing lisp and a distinct American twang, that was making Jamie feel a certain kind of way.

“Ah, yeah. I’m Jamie, I’m on guitar”, Jamie explained, her voice cracking a bit as she said her name.

Dani smiled at Jamie again (Jamie was already ready to do all kinds of questionable things just to see that smile), letting go of her hand. She looked down at her bass once more, feeling shy in a room full of strangers. Jamie continued to stare, and as the realisation finally dawned on her that Dani was going to be a part of her life for the foreseeable future, she felt much lighter.

The suffering plants at work were forgotten; the pain of Rebecca’s betrayal and life’s general shittiness, suddenly didn’t feel so bad.

Owen and Hannah had been stealing knowing glances at each other through the entire exchange, but now that silence had fallen over the new band-mates, they were starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

“So, shall we get started then,” Owen said, standing up as he did so.

Jamie reached for her guitar case, which she had left behind the sofa. As she leaned over sofa, her shoulder pushed against Dani’s. The slight contact through 4 layers of clothes, managed to send shockwaves through Jamie, and her heart jumped up into her throat. She quickly yanked her guitar out of its case, and croaked, “Yeah”.

Jamie stole several more glances at Dani as they set up their instruments and amps. Dani handled the bass with ease, and gracefully navigated the wiring so that she was completely ready in a few minutes. Jamie was feeling far more nervous than she would normally, and her hands were starting to clam up.

"God, I hope this goes well," Jamie thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Titles are from the song 'She Plays Bass'-beabadoobee, go listen its great.
> 
> And leave a comment, they make me feel very loved


	2. im not afraid of my demons, i'll turn the pain into peaches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just a mini chapter that gives Dani a bit more backstory.

Dani was sat on her rickety bed at the hostel she was staying at. It was far from being five stars, but it was a roof over head while she figured her shit out. She’d moved to an entirely different content, pretty much on impulse. She hid her face in her hands, trying to rub away the lines of anxiety and exhaustion that had started to mark her face over the last few months. Through her fingers, she spotted her bass lying in its open case. Right now, her music was pretty much the only thing that made her feel the slightest tickle of joy.

She reached for the white bass, perched it on her leg, and began plucking each string and tuning it by ear. She began playing through a random base line, humming along and making up her own melody to complement the notes that were resonating from the bass.She shut her eyes, letting the music flow out from her fingers into the air, fill up the room with life and colour, and feel it push itself back through her ears to wash away the fears that had been nesting in her brain. As she finished her mini jam-session, she kept her eyes closed.

She knew that when she opened her eyes, she would notice the chip in the dresser that was opposite her. If she tilted her head slightly up, the little spider that had made its home in the corner of the room would greet her. And if she turned her head completely to the right, she’d see a sad, lonely American woman in the mirror. As she opened her eyes, and confirmed all her predictions, she knew it was time to get out of this damn room. She lay the bass back into the case lovingly, and found her phone, hoping to find some resources or clubs or anything, to maybe make some friends.

Her first instinct was to google ‘music clubs near me’, but the only result that came up was the local choir, and, while she did like to sing, the people in this choir all appeared to be over the age of 65. Dani was looking for friends, so this would be the last resort.Next was Instagram, but similarly, the people she followed were all people from her home town in Iowa. And there weren’t any popular hashtags that she could sift through for something like this.  
The final app was twitter. She had opened this app, maybe three times since she downloaded it, and she was generally unfamiliar with how it works. But she had managed to follow a twitter account about London Music that frequently tweeted about gigs that were going on and the local music scene. When she first got here, she thought she could treat herself to enjoying some live music by lesser-known musicians. Of course, the funk she had fallen into had prevented that, but now it was coming in useful.

They had retweeted a tweet by a band that was looking for a new member.   
Bly Minor, huh? They looked like a fun bunch. And Dani knew she was a good enough musician to be part of their group. After all, she had already been in a band before. 

So, with the same impulsivity that carried her across the Atlantic ocean and abandon her friends and family, she sent a dm to the band’s twitter account introducing herself and expressing her interest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Chapter title from Peaches (Text Voter XX to 40649) - grandson x K.Flay -> great song helped me through quarantine


End file.
